High School Notebook: Champagne, seniors have authored Ashland basketball turnaround

Saturday

Jan 25, 2014 at 10:00 PMJan 26, 2014 at 11:23 AM

The Clockers are 11-0 and 10-0 in the Tri-Valley League after a 53-49 win over Medway on Friday. Winning the TVL would be a note in permanent marker for the turnaround this senior class has authored.

By Dan CagenDaily News staff

They were there from the beginning.Mark Champagne took over as the head coach for the Ashland boys basketball team in 2010. The Clockers won all of five games that first season in the winter of 2010-11."We weren't a very talented team then," Joe Byrnes, a freshman on the varsity that season, said. "We didn't win many games. The freshman and JV teams weren't set up and we weren't developing talent."There are six seniors who remain from that season, careers that began with defeats piling up like game-worn jerseys into the laundry bin, stinky and needing a cleansing.That sextet of seniors has been the detergent, slowly bringing Ashland back to relevancy. The Clockers won 10 games in 2011-12 and 13 a year ago. Now the senior class — Byrnes, John Iarussi, David Morrison, Kris Brugger, Brendan Thurber and Nayro Duque — is closing in on the end of their careers with a league title in sight.The Clockers are 11-0 and 10-0 in the Tri-Valley League after a 53-49 win over Medway on Friday.Winning the TVL would be a note in permanent marker for the turnaround this senior class has authored."I think it would be reinforcement as a coach to try to teach kids to work hard," Champagne said. "All those things people think are clichés and that's what you try to get them to believe in. With this group, I think if they continue to progress, they're going to leave from this experience that if you do learn and are good teammates and really click as a group, you're going to have success."Byrnes and Iarussi are the captains of a group that has talent, but perhaps not the most in the league. They're certainly one of the smaller teams, often relying on double-teams and junk defenses to survive in the post.Yet they've thrived on that defense and a deep roster. Max Feinberg, John Van Kleef, twins Michael and Paul Boudreau and Cam Phaneuf are the non-seniors that have contributed. There have been six different leading scorers in their 11 games.The six seniors played together before they were freshmen, on travel and youth teams. It was a talented group, one that usually won. It was a shock to join a losing program three years ago, but Burns says the confidence never dipped that they would find a way to emerge — even if 11-0 is beyond even their own expectations."It's awesome," Byrnes said. "My grade's always been a really talented group and the grade below it is too. It's nice to know the hard work's paid off."What's made the difference from being an above-average team in 2012-13 to an undefeated one in 2013-14? Burns points to the defense, which is allowing 42.5 points a game and has never surrendered more than 50 points."We definitely focus a lot more on defense," Byrnes said.Just as important has been the improved focus from the team."For the high school sports, all the parts of competing — they don't just come because someone is a good athlete or skilled," Champagne said. "There's the mental part, the physical part, but the emotional part of the team is very good. When I got here, we would get technical fouls for our language. I think that's really important for kids to not have your body run your brain. It's easy to do, I've been guilty of it. We're much better there now."The 58-year-old Champagne started his career with a whistle at 28 at Bridgewater State. He was less than a decade removed from his Medfield High graduation. Early in his coaching career, Champagne admits he wanted to "coach the sport."Now?"When you're older, you want to be wiser and do something special with young people," he said. "You've got to figure out how to do it. For us, we define why we do well as how we would do it. How are we doing it? We want to do it the right way."The result would be that winning would take care of itself. Then when you have talent, you have better years."In that way, Champagne and this senior sextet came together at the right time — a coach looking for a team that to play 'the right way' and a group of players ready and willing to do so."This group would be the model for it," Champagne said. "Every senior year has helped that foundation. But this group …" Champagne trails off for a moment."You would like being around our kids. They're really a good group."Dan Cagen can be reached at 508-626-3848 or dcagen@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanCagen.

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